How to Sew Produce Bags with Simple Tie Closures

These produce bags with simple tie closures are easy to sew, put a dent in your scrap fabric pile and keep plastic out of landfill. The post How to Sew Produce Bags with Simple Tie Closures appeared first on Zero-Waste Chef.

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Dec 2, 2024 - 15:22
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How to Sew Produce Bags with Simple Tie Closures

I specialize in simple.

If you’d like to make reusable produce bags with closures but don’t want to sew casings for drawstrings, simply embed two straps or ribbons into one side of each bag as you sew. Take your bag shopping, fill it, wrap the ties around the top and tie them together. Easy-peasy.

A filled white cloth produce bag is closed at the top with a blue tie. It sits on a dark wooden background.
A simple produce bag filled with San Marzano tomatoes

Most cloth produce bags don’t need a closure. The fossil fuel-based plastic ones in grocery stores don’t close and yet customers somehow seem to manage to get their potatoes home in them. But you do need a secure closure when filling bags at the bulk bins. When I recently bought bulk wheat berries in a drawstring bag, a pile of them spilled out onto the scale as the cashier weighed the bag. Oops! Ties on the other hand, will prevent leaks.

These produce bags also make cute reusable gift bags, easing pressure on your wallet and landfills—many types of gift wrap are not recyclable. Every year after opening our Christmas presents, I simply gather up the produce bags and bento-type bags and put them back in the closet. Less trash and less stress! Speaking of stress, the dire environmental implications of a second Trump term may be causing you some. Making stuff (like these bags) helps alleviate stress.

How to sew the bags

1. Cut the fabric

The fabric below measure approximately 15 inches by 21 inches. The two ties each measure about 14 inches. The size of my finished bag often depends on the size of my scraps. I make big bags and small bags, tall bags and short bags, wide bags and narrow bags. They are all created equal in the eyes of their maker, me.

The straps shown below came from a giant duvet cover that someone donated to my sewing bee. (We make produce bags out of donated fabric and give them away to shoppers at the farmers’ market to reduce plastic and start conversations about plastic pollution. Read more about that here.) Ribbons work also. And fabric scraps are a goldmine—I have a lifetime supply of strap-making supplies!

Two blue sewn strips of fabric sit next to a white rectangular piece of fabric on on a dark wooden background
One 15-inch by 21-inch rectangle; two 14-inch straps

2. Finish the top edge depending on the machine you use

On a serger (aka overlock machine), I finished the top edge of the bag with a standard stitch. I sometimes make a rolled hem, which looks very nice. If you sew your bags on a standard sewing machine, hem the top edge after you finish sewing the bag.

The edge of a white piece of fabric is finished with a serged stitch
The bag’s opening edge finished on a serger

3. Fold, embed and pin

Place the straps below the top edge on the right side of the fabric. I positioned mine 3 inches from the top edge. Right sides together, fold the fabric like a book. Pin the straps in place.

Two blue straps are butted against the side edge of a piece of white fabric before sewing it into a produce bag. The fabric sits on a dark wooden background.
Butt the straps against the side edge
A rectangular piece of white fabric is folded almost all the way in half. Near the top right are the ends of two blue straps, one of top of the other. The fabric sits on a dark wooden background.
A white rectangular piece of fabric is folded in half before sewing it into a reusable produce bag. It sits on a dark wooden background.
Fold the fabric like a book, right sides facing with the straps inside
A produce bag before sewing it together. Two strips are pinned to the side on the inside of the fabric. The fabric sits on a dark wooden background.
A produce bag before sewing it together. Two strips are pinned to the side on the inside of the fabric. The fabric sits on a dark wooden background.
Pin the straps in place

4. Sew the bag

Sew along the bottom of the bag, turn, and sew up the side edge. The ties are now embedded in the bag’s seam! A serger trims, sews and finishes the edge all in one stroke. On a standard machine, finish the edge with a zigzag stitch.

Sewing a seam on a white produce bag with blue ties pinned to the inside
Don’t serge over the pin! Remove it.
A white produce bag with blue ties. It's inside out and sitting on a dark wooden background.
An empty white produce bag with blue ties sits on a dark wooden background
Turn the bag right-side out and put it to use!
A filled white cloth produce bag is closed at the top with a blue tie. It sits on a dark wooden background.

Keep these stashed in your reusable shopping bags so you’ll always have them. Happy sewing!

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The post How to Sew Produce Bags with Simple Tie Closures appeared first on Zero-Waste Chef.

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